Category Archives: J.R.R.Tolkien

One of the major themes of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is that of unity and division. The forces of Mordor spend most of their time quarrelling amongst themselves; such as in the episode of the Tower of Cirith Ungol where the Orc garrison fall upon each other in a dispute between two opposed factions.

“Sam strode forward. Sting glittered blue in his hand. The courtyard lay in deep shadow, but he could see that the pavement was strewn with bodies. Right at his feet were two orc-archers with knives sticking in their backs. Beyond lay many more shapes; some singly as they had been hewn down or shot; others in pairs, still grappling one another, dead in the very throes of stabbing, throttling, biting. The stones were slippery with dark blood.”

It is striking that the forces of Sauron seem unified only by their hatred of good and the mesmeric influence of the One Ring which draws them to Mordor-

‘One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie’.

On the contrary it is ultimately the unity of the forces of good which defeats Sauron, built on the foundations of the company of the Ring- brought together by choice unlike the forces of Mordor enslaved by the One Ring.

‘The Company of the Ring shall be Nine; and the Nine Walkers shall be set against the Nine Riders that are evil. With you and your faithful servant, Gandalf will go; for this shall be his great task, and maybe the end of his labours.’ ‘For the rest, they shall represent the other Free Peoples of the World: Elves, Dwarves, and Men.”

(As a Bahá’í I find Tolkien’s emphasis on the importance of unity very moving. The founder of the the Bahá’í Faith Bahá’u’lláh wrote “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth”).

The ‘Nine Walkers’ themselves represent a unity in diversity very reminiscent of the ‘Nine Worthies’ of Medieval romance. The ‘Nine Worthies’ were a recurring motif in Medieval art representing universal heroic values. In the manner of the Company of the Ring they were a diverse group comprising Pagans (Hector, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar) Old Testament Jews (Joshua, David Judas, Maccabeus) and Christian Knights (King Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Bouillon).

I have sometimes wondered why Tolkien chose to represent two poles of evil in Lord of the Rings that of Sauron and Saruman, an unusual structure both in fantastic fiction and in the epic myths from which the story grew. Amongst other ideas it has been suggested that the relationship of Sauron to Saruman reflects the relationship of the various dictators of the Second World War but I find no major evidence of this in the text. A more convincing explanation is that it is part of a theme of how even the supposedly wise and virtuous can be seduced by evil- with the proud Saruman seduced by Sauron in a way the more humble hobbits are not.

‘A strong place and wonderful was Isengard, and long it had been beautiful. But Saruman had slowly shaped it to his shifting purposes, and made it better, as he thought, being deceived-for all those arts and subtle devices, for which he forsook his former wisdom, and which fondly he imagined were his own, came but from Mordor; so that what he made was naught, only a little copy, a child’s model or a slave’s flattery, of that vast fortress, armoury, prison, furnace of great power, Barad-dûr, the Dark Tower, which suffered no rival, and laughed at flattery, biding its time, secure in its pride and its immeasurable strength’.

A more esoteric explanation of the twin poles of Sauron and Saruman is perhaps the influence on Tolkien of fellow Inkling Owen Barfield (1898- 1997) Barfield was a long-term friend of C.S. Lewis and a founder member of the Inklings. He was a philosopher influenced by the tenets of Anthrosophy. One of the tenets of Anthrosophy as expressed by the founder Rudolph Steiner was the idea of the soul of man being pulled between the two extremes of materialism and spiritual pride personified as ‘Ahriman’ and ‘Lucifer’.

‘To form a right conception of the historical evolution of mankind during approximately 6000 years, one must grasp that at the one pole stands a Luciferic incarnation, in the center, the incarnation of Christ, and at the other pole the Ahrimanic incarnation. Lucifer is the power that stirs up in man all fanatical, all falsely mystical forces, all that physiologically tends to bring the blood into disorder and so lift man above and outside himself. Ahriman is the power that makes man dry, prosaic, philistine – that ossifies him and brings him to the superstition of materialism. And the true nature and being of man is essentially the effort to hold the balance between the powers of Lucifer and Ahriman; the Christ Impulse helps present humanity to establish this equilibrium. Thus these two poles – the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic – are continuously present in man. Viewed historically, we find that the Luciferic preponderated in certain currents of cultural development of the pre-Christian age and continued into the first centuries of our era. On the other hand the Ahrimanic influence has been at work since the middle of the fifteenth century and will increase in strength until an actual incarnation of Ahriman takes place among Western humanity’.

The Ahrimanic Deception Lecture by Rudolf Steiner in Zurich on October 27, 1919.

Viewed in this light Sauron and Saruman can be seen as opposite poles of false spirituality and gross materialism. Sauron as ‘Lucifer’ has spirit servants (the Ringwraiths) insubstantial and formless given a kind of false immortality (in fact slavery to the ring). Wearing black robes to ‘give shape to their nothingness’.

Saruman as ‘Ahriman’ has as his servant the materialistic Wormtongue who craves worldly power and influence. Unlike the spells of Sauron which grant false immortality the enchantments of Saruman imprison King Théoden in a false old age. Isengard is a place of ceaseless industry mass-producing the materials of war.

‘Iron Wheels revolved there endlessly, and hammers thudded. At night plumes of vapour steamed from the vents, lit from beneath with red light, or blue, or venomous green’

‘The Two Towers’

Treebeard says of Saruman that he has “a mind of metal and wheels.” In contrast Barad-dur is not a factory but seems rather to serve as a physical form for Sauron’s nebulous spirit.

“But Sauron was not of mortal flesh, and though he was robbed now of that shape in which had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never again appear fair to the eyes of Men, yet his spirit arose out of the deep and passed as a shadow and a black wind over the sea, and came back to Middle-earth and to Mordor that was his home. There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-dur, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible; and the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

Saruman has as his emblem the White Hand signifying action and industry Sauron’s symbol is that of the lidless eye ever watchful but empty within.

‘The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat’s, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing’.

In a sense Sauron can be seen as spirit without form and Saruman as form without spirit not unlike the Lucifer and Ahriman of the anthrosophical teachings propounded by Owen Barfield.

One of my favourite passages from the Lord of the Rings is this sympathetic description of a slain Southron warrior flung from the ‘Oliphaunt’.

‘His scarlet robes were tattered, his corslet of overlapping brazen plates was rent and hewn, his black plaits of hair braided with gold were drenched with blood. His brown hand still clutched the hilt of a broken sword.

It was Sam’s first view of a battle of men against men, and he did not like it much. He wondered what the man’s name was and where he had come from; and if he really was evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace’

‘The Two Towers’

I think Sam’s views are very much those of the author and reflect the humane vision which permeates the work and makes it an enduring classic of Fantastic Fiction.

The dislike of allegory stated by J.R.R. Tolkien in his forward to ‘The Lord of the Rings’ contrasts greatly with the views of John Bunyan expressed in the beginning of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’.

Tolkien writes in his forward

‘I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence’

On the contrary Bunyan, although apologetic, states clearly that allegory is the style most suited to express the message he is trying to convey.

‘And thus it was: I, writing of the way

And race of saints, in this our gospel day,

Fell suddenly into an allegory

About their journey, and the way to glory,

In more than twenty things which I set down.

This done, I twenty more had in my crown;

And they again began to multiply,

Like sparks that from the coals of fire do fly’.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 1

Given Tolkien’s fundamental difference of opinion with Bunyan one might expect to see little relationship between ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’. Curiously this does not seem to be the case as the topography imagery and narrative of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ appears in part to both parallel ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ and also to significantly invert them in places.

There are certain parallels between the two central characters of these works. Christian is on a journey to the ‘Celestial City’ to relieve himself of a burden of sin without which he would sink into ‘Tophet’ or hell.

‘Because I fear that this burden is upon my back will sink me lower than the grave, and I shall fall into Tophet’.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 15

Frodo must bear the ring to Mordor and the ring is also referred to as a burden-

‘In fact with every step towards the gates of Mordor Frodo felt the Ring on its chain about his neck grow more burdensome. He was now beginning to feel it as an actual weight dragging him earthwards’.

‘The Lord of the Rings’pg. 616

Both Frodo and Christian are guided by characters with greater wisdom than themselves- Gandalf and Evangelist.

‘Such questions cannot be answered,’ said Gandalf. ‘You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess: not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.’

‘But I have so little of any of these things! You are wise and powerful. Will you not take the Ring?’

‘The Lord of the Rings’pg. 60

‘CHR. I am directed by a man, whose name is Evangelist, to speed me to a little gate that is before us, where we shall receive instructions about the way’.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 24

(Of course there are major differences between these two characters Gandalf appears as a mentor whereas Evangelist is a wayfarer’s guide. This could be a function of literary style where ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ is a pure allegory and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ has more narrative depth).

In addition the interaction of Boromir with Frodo has strong echoes of that of Worldly Wise with Christian in ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ where both play the role of tempter.

‘I think I already know what counsel you would give,” said Frodo, “and it would seem like wisdom but for the warning of my heart.”

“Warning? Warning against what?” said Boromir sharply.

“Against delay. Against the way that seems easier. Against refusal of the burden that is laid on me. Against— well, if it must be said, against trust in the strength and truth of Men.”

‘The Lord of the Rings’ pg. 388

‘WORLD. How now, good fellow, whither away after this burdened manner’?

CHR. A burdened manner, indeed, as ever, I think, poor creature had! And whereas you ask me, Whither away? I tell you, Sir, I am going to yonder wicket-gate before me; for there, as I am informed, I shall be put into a way to be rid of my heavy burden.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 38

In the battle between Théoden and the Nazgul Théoden is pierced by dart in a similar way to Christian being struck by the darts of Apollyon.

‘To me! To me!’ cried Théoden. `Up Eorlingas ! Fear no darkness!’ But Snowmane wild with terror stood up on high, fighting with the air, and then with a great scream he crashed upon his side: a black dart had pierced him. The king fell beneath him. The great shadow descended like a falling cloud. And behold! it was a winged creature…

‘The Lord of the Rings’ pg. 822

‘And with that he threw a flaming dart at his breast; but Christian had a shield in his hand, with which he caught it, and so prevented the danger of that.

Then did Christian draw, for he saw it was time to bestir him; and Apollyon as fast made at him, throwing darts as thick as hail; by the which, notwithstanding all that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand, and foot’.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 150

There are interesting parallels between the episode of Frodo’s imprisonment in Cirith Ungol and the jailing of Christian by Giant Despair in Doubting Castle where both characters are imprisoned starved and abused. Both characters use an ‘artefact’ to escape. In the case of Frodo and Sam it is the ‘Phial of Galadrial’ and Christian uses ‘a Key in my bosom called Promise’.

‘Sam drew out the elven-glass of Galadriel again. As if to honor to his hardihood, and to grace with splendor his faithful brown hobbit-hand that had done such deeds, the phial blazed forth suddenly, so that all the shadowy court was lit with a dazzling radiance like lightning; but it remained steady and did not pass.

‘Gilthoniel, A Elbereth!’ Sam cried. For, why he did not know, his thought sprang back suddenly to the Elves in the Shire, and the song that drove away the Black Rider in the Trees.

‘Aiya elenion ancalima!’ cried Frodo once again behind him.

The will of the Watchers was broken with a suddenness like the snapping of a cord, and Frodo and Sam stumbled forward. Then they ran. Through the gate and past the great seated figures with their glittering eyes. There was a crack. The keystone of the arch crashed almost on their heels, and the wall above crumbled, and fell in ruin. Only by a hair did they escape. A bell clanged, and from the Watchers there went up a high and dreadful wail. Far up above in the darkness it was answered. Out of the black sky there came dropping like a bolt a winged shape, rending the clouds with a ghastly shriek.’

‘The Lord of the Rings’ pg. 894

‘Then Christian pulled it out of his bosom, and began to try at the Dungeon door, whose bolt (as he turned the Key) gave back, and the door flew open with ease, and Christian and Hopeful both came out. Then he went to the outward door that leads into the Castle-yard, and with his Key opened that door also. After he went to the iron Gate, for that must be opened too, but that Lock went damnable hard, yet the Key did open it. Then they thrust open the Gate to make their escape with speed; but that Gate as it opened made such a creaking, that it waked Giant Despair, who hastily rising to pursue his Prisoners, felt his limbs to fail, for his Fits took him again, so that he could by no means go after them. Then they went on, and came to the King’s High-way again, and so were safe, because they were out of his jurisdiction’.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 292

(Of course these are stylistically two very different approaches. Bunyan labours his allegory by having Christian pull the key out of his bosom whereas the Phial of Galadrial reads as both spiritual symbol and an artefact within the narrative).

Whilst on the subject of artefacts another curious inversion is the way both stories include ‘all-seeing eyes’ but the Palantir of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ gives Pippin (and the reader) hints of what is happening whereas the shepherds ‘perspective glass’ in ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ appears to reveal the end of the story.

‘Let us here show to the Pilgrims the gates of the Celestial City, if they have skill to look through our perspective glass. The Pilgrims then lovingly accepted the motion; so they had them to the top of a high hill, called Clear, and gave them their glass to look.

Then they essayed to look, but the remembrance of that last thing that the Shepherds had shown them, made their hands shake; by means of which impediment, they could not look steadily through the glass; yet they thought they saw something like the gate, and also some of the glory of the place. Then they went away, and sang this song–

Thus, by the Shepherds, secrets are reveal’d,

Which from all other men are kept conceal’d.

Come to the Shepherds, then, if you would see

Things deep, things hid, and that mysterious be’.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 304-305

‘I, I took the ball and looked at it,’ stammered Pippin; ‘and I saw things that frightened me. and I wanted to go away, but I couldn’t. and then he came and questioned me and he looked at me, and that is all I remember…In a low hesitating voice Pippin began again, and slowly his words grew stronger and clearer. “I saw a dark sky, and tall battlements,” he said. “And tiny stars. It seemed very far away and long ago, yet hard and clear. Then the stars went in and out — they were cut off by things with wings. Very big, I thing, really; but in the glass they looked like bats wheeling round the tower. I thought there were nine of them. One began to fly straight towards me, getting bigger and bigger….’

‘The Lord of the Rings’ pg. 579

Perhaps the contrast between these two visions is a reflection of authorial intent. Bunyan makes it clear in the poem that begins the work what the end of the story is

‘This book it chalketh out before thine eyes

The man that seeks the everlasting prize;

It shews you whence he comes, whither he goes;

What he leaves undone, also what he does;

It also shows you how he runs and runs,

Till he unto the gate of glory comes’.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 8

Tolkien’s’ Palantir vision hints at the plot but does not give away the ending and ultimately leaves the reader draw his own meaning from the work. As the author writes in his forward to ‘The Lord of the Rings’

‘I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘allegory’; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.’

There are some interesting correspondences between the topography of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’.(Probably because in some cases they are drawing on the same Biblical imagery). The description of the Morgul Vale and the ‘Valley of the Shadow of Death’ in ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ has certain echoes.

‘A long-tilted valley, a deep gulf of shadow, ran back far into the mountains. Upon the further side, some way within the valley’s arms, high on a rocky seat upon the black knees of the Ephel Dúath, stood the walls and tower of Minas Morgul. All was dark about it, earth and sky, but it was lit with light.’

‘The Lord of the Rings’ pg. 688

‘Now, at the end of this valley was another, called the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and Christian must needs go through it, because the way to the Celestial City lay through the midst of it. Now, this valley is a very solitary place. The prophet Jeremiah thus describes it: “A wilderness, a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, a land that no man” (but a Christian) “passed through, and where no man dwelt.” [Jer. 2:6]

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. (Psalms 23:4.)

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 155

See also the ‘Dead Marshes’ and the ‘Slough Of Despond. Another comparison can be made between the House of Elrond and the House of the Interpreter particularly in the description of the graceful inhabitants of these locations.

‘I saw also, that the Interpreter took him again by the hand, and led him into a pleasant place, where was built a stately palace, beautiful to behold; at the sight of which Christian was greatly delighted. He saw also upon the top thereof certain persons walking, who were clothed all in gold’.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 82

“Glorfindel was tall and straight; his hair was of shining gold, his face fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his eyes were bright and keen, and his voice like music; on his brow sat wisdom, and in his hand was strength.”

‘The Lord of the Rings’ pg. 220

Despite these similarities there are significant instances where the narrative of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ seems to be an inversion of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’. The most major example is that Christian is leaving the ‘City of Destruction’ on top of Mt. Zion to be ‘delivered from the wrath to come’ whereas on the contrary Frodo is leaving the peaceful Shire towards Mount Doom warlike Mordor and an uncertain fate.

“What is to be my quest? Bilbo went to find a treasure, there and back again; but I go to lose one, and not return, as far as I can see.”

“But you cannot see very far,” said Gandalf. “Neither can I. It may be your task to find the Cracks of Doom; but that quest may be for others: I do not know. At any rate you are not ready for that long road yet.”

“No indeed!” said Frodo. “But in the meantime what course am I to take?”

CHR. Here is a poor burdened sinner. I come from the City of Destruction, but am going to Mount Zion, that I may be delivered from the wrath to come. I would therefore, Sir, since I am informed that by this gate is the way thither, know if you are willing to let me in?

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 61

(Is this indicative of a difference of theological metaphors? Perhaps ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is pre-Fall with the Shire as it’s Eden whereas the narrative of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ takes place post-Fall where the whole world is a ‘City Of Destruction’).

Both stories involve a journey towards a mountain but in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ it is the infernal Mount Doom whereas in ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ it is the heavenly Mount Zion.

“The Mountain standing ominous and alone had looked taller than it was. Sam saw now that it was less lofty than the high passes of the Ephel Dúath which he and Frodo had scaled. The confused and tumbled shoulders of its great base rose for maybe three thousand feet above the plain, and above them was reared half as high again its tall central cone, like a vast oast or chimney capped with a jagged crater.”

‘The Lord of the Rings’ pg. 920

There, said they, is the Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable company of angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect. [Heb. 12:22-24] You are going now, said they, to the paradise of God, wherein you shall see the tree of life, and eat of the never-fading fruits thereof; and when you come there, you shall have white robes given you, and your walk and talk shall be every day with the King, even all the days of eternity.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ section 395

Another contrast is in the way both works describe the itinerary journey undertaken by the protagonists and the significance of the route taken. Christian is directed to the ‘wicket-gate’ of heaven by the straightest route. Conversely Frodo and Sam enter Mordor by an indirect route via the stairs of Cirith Ungol avoiding the infernal ‘Black Gate’.

CHR. But thou camest not in at the wicket-gate that is at the head of this way; thou camest in hither through that same crooked lane, and therefore, I fear, however thou mayest think of thyself, when the reckoning day shall come, thou wilt have laid to thy charge that thou art a thief and a robber, instead of getting admittance into the city.

‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ 309

Incidentally there are some odd echoes of Christian’s references to thieves and robbers in the words of the ‘Mouth of Sauron’ addressed to Gandalf and his party before the Black Gate of Mordor.

‘Dwarf-coat, elf-cloak, blade of the downfallen West, and spy from the little rat-land of the Shire… here are the marks of a conspiracy….

’ The Lord of the Rings’ pg. 871

Whether these comparisons and contrasts with ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ were deliberate on Tolkien’s part is unclear perhaps it is simply that ‘The Lord of the Rings’ draws on similar Biblical imagery and Christian themes. After all Tolkien says as much in one of his letters.

“The Lord of the Rings’ is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision. That is why I have not put in, or have cut out practically all references to anything like ‘religion,’ to cults or practices, in the imaginary world. For the religious element is absorbed into the story and symbolism.”

“…to forget the eternal reasons is the cause of the departure of the soul from the Gods, and to recall the knowledge of the eternal reasons or Ideas is the cause of the return to them…” ~ Proclus Filed under: Uncategorized

“…it is a most refined view of creation which sees the many as many but at the same time sees that there is one common nature within all things; that they have received this nature from a single source; and that through this nature they are able to lead to single end”. – Marsilio FicinoFiled […]

“Plotinus holds that all souls must be separable from bodies, with the sole exception of the universal soul from the universal body;for all bodies are in flux and perish able, except the one body of all, in its totality, which is eternal. What then in respect of souls, he asks (vi. 4, 16), is the […]

You have spoken of “first patterns”- of images without existence save in the soul of the carver, but which he transmutes into matter, making them visible. So that before long such a carver’s shapes can be seen, and so obtain their formal reality, they are there already as forms within his soul. And this same […]

Interesting Links

Friends of Arthur Machen
The Friends of Arthur Machen grew out of the remains of the British Arthur Machen Society, which was originally formed in the 1980s. The current membership of the Friends is very diverse, reflecting the very diverse currents which have drawn it together.

Internet Sacred Texts Archive
A freely available archive of electronic texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and occult and esoteric topics. Texts are presented in English translation and, where possible, in the original language.

Mythopoeic Society
A non-profit organization devoted to the study of mythopoeic literature, particularly the works of members of the informal Oxford literary circle known as the “Inklings.”

The Charles Williams Society
The Charles Williams Society exists to promote the study and appreciation of the life and writings of Charles Walter Stansby Williams, a poet, novelist, and lay theologian.

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